Money discussions (and listens) on Saudi Investment Forum attended by Trump

The White House said on Tuesday that President Trump, while in Saudi Arabia $ 600 billion had taken care of deals with the Saudi government and companies. But the details that the White House provided were vague and amounted to less than half that number.

And a further consideration of the projects provided by the administration shows that there were already several works before Mr. Trump took office.

The announcement was made just before Mr. Trump spoke with a meeting of business leaders at the US Saudi Investment Forum in Riyad, where he said that the only country that is hotter than the United States was Saudi Arabia.

“We fluctuate,” he said. “The United States are the hottest country, with the exception of your country.”

Before you turn to a serious foreign policy, including news he was Cancel sanctions against SyriaMr. Trump swung through his favorite talk points, Bashende his predecessor, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. And bragged about wearing swing states in the elections.

“The Arabian Peninsula – beautiful place, by the way,” he said. “Nice place.”

The greatest announced deal was what the administration called ‘the largest defense turn agreement in history’. The agreement of nearly $ 142 billion will offer the Kingdom of State-of-the-Art war feed equipment and services from more than a dozen American defense industrial companies.

The White House also included an obligation from the Saudi company DataVolt to continue with plans to invest $ 20 billion in artificial intelligence data centers and energy infrastructure in the United States.

It also praised more than $ 2 billion in work that American companies performed on Saudi infrastructure projects, including King Salman International Airport, King Salman Park and Qiddiya City, a huge entertainment complex. The Bouwbedrijf Jacobs announced his involvement in the new Saudi Airport Project last August. Aecom had also won a contract to offer design and project management services for the Qiddiya City Project.

The deals announced by the White House amounted to a total of around $ 283 billion – less than half of the $ 600 billion promised by the Saudi crown prince – but the administration said that these were “only a few of the many transforming deals that were confirmed in Saudi -Arabia.” Civil servants of the White House said there would be more such deals. (Organizers of the Investment Forum said that 145 deals were signed, a total of more than $ 300 billion.)

The White House said that the package also included extensive training and support to build the capacity of the Saudi armed forces.

In his comments at the conference, Mr Trump greeted the rapid development of the Kingdom and claimed that the Biden government had done little for the region.

He also went after Iran and called it ‘the largest and most destructive’ power that threatened the stability and prosperity of the middle, and promising would never have a nuclear weapon. At the same time he said that he offered Iran ‘a new path and a much better path to a much better and hopeful future’, ‘

“I never believed in having permanent enemies,” said Mr. Trump.

The American President Drew lasted applause when he announced that the United States would lift the sanctions against Syria, giving the new government the chance to rebuild a country that was destroyed by its long civil war.

But there was silence in the crowd after he said it was his “fiery wish” that Saudi -Arabia was at the Abraham AccordsThe 2020 deal in which two of his neighbors have set up diplomatic relations with Israel. The standardization of relations with the Israeli government is deeply unpopular among Saudis, polls and Saudi officials say that recognizing Israel would hang on the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Mr. Trump also spoke about the war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.

“The people of Gaza deserve a much better future,” he said. “But that will or cannot happen as long as their leaders choose to kidnap, torture and focus on political purposes.”

The announcement of the White House about the deals came hours after Mr Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman had signed a series of similarities between the United States and Saudi Aarabia.

They include a declaration of intent for future defense options; a memorandum of understanding with the Ministry of Justice; Cooperation in the field of space and infectious diseases; And memoranda of understanding on energy and mineral resources.

They also include an agreement between NASA and the Saudi Space Agency For a Saudi cube hole for flying on NASA’s Artemis II -Test flight. The Cubesat will measure aspects of space weather at different distances of the earth.

The United States and Saudi Aarabia also signed an agreement between the National Zoo of the Smithsonian and the Royal Commission for Alula to support the preservation of the endangered Arab leopard by establishing a dedicated exhibition in Washington.

Before the agreements signed, Mr. Trump Saudi Arabia again encouraged to increase his investment in the United States by more than $ 600 billion for four years. Mr. Trump asked that song that was collected to $ 1 trillion, although economists say the kingdom Has not such financial resources available.

“We have the largest managers in the world here,” said Mr. Trump. “They leave with many checks.”

Mr. Trump spoke with those who gathered at the US-Saudi Investment Forum, which served as a meeting place for the rich and powerful world. He has filled his white house with billionaires, including Elon Musk, the world’s richest man; Scott Bessent, the Minister of Finance; And David O. Sacks, are AI and Crypto advisor. All spoke at the event.

“How do we win the AI ​​race?” Mr Sacks told those who were collected. “The answer is that we have to build the largest partner ecosystem. We need our friends such as the Kingdom of Saudi Aarabia and other strategic partners and allies to want to build on our technology.”

The meeting sometimes felt like a Make America Great Again -Rally, when someone attended the Chief Executives of IBM, BlackRock and Citigroup. Many of them already have Saudi ties. A Saudi host joked that guests ‘made aviation again great’.

Mohammad Bahareth, 40, a Saudi self -help converor who runs a private room company, appeared on the forum with a “Trump 2028” hat in combination with a red tie. “President Trump always comes as a businessman,” he said. “This is the business mind set.”

“We want technology,” said Mr Bahareth. “We want to engage. We want to train our youth. We want the skills to be super power in this region.”

Leaders of Amazon, the Defense Giants Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman and Halliburton were present. Jensen Huang, the Chief Executive of Nvidia, were the world’s largest semiconductor company; Alex Karp, the Chief Executive of the software company Palantir Technologies; And Patrick Soon-Shiong, the businessman who owns the Los Angeles Times.

The president of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, also spoke during the event. Saudi Arabia plans to organize the World Cup in 2034.

The Kingdom has tried to transform itself from a country that is completely dependent on oil production in a more diverse economy. Saudi officials say that oil represented no less than 90 percent of government revenues, but that the figure is now closer to 55 percent.

Larry Fink, Chief Executive of BlackRock, the American investment company, said that Saudi Aarabia “had made an explanation to the world that we are going to do it ourselves, that we are going to build our economy, and we are going to build our economy in a way we check.”

Mr. Trump told his advisers that during his overseas trip of more than $ 1 trillion he wanted to score more than $ 1 trillion, including stops in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, two of the world’s richest countries per head of the population.

Mr Trump claimed that during a visit to Saudi Arabia, he insured $ 450 billion in investments in the United States during his first term in 2017. But an analysis of Tim Callen, an economist and former international monetary fund mission chief to Saudi Aarabia, discovered that this amount is not fully delivered. The export of American goods and services to Saudi Arabia, while Mr Trump was in function from 2017 to 2020 was $ 92 billion, Mr Callen thought less than the total during President Barack Obama’s second term.

The other two countries on Mr Trump’s journey are expected to deliver large deals.